Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1887-12-13
ACCIDENTAL INVENTIONS.
"'k'" OF the bayonet. the Telescope and
the Art OF LithoRrapbinp.

Virgin OF the Bayonet, the Teleseooe ana
,,,, the Art OF Lithographine.
Inc bayonet is said to have derived
us name from the fact that 1t was first
made at Bayonne. and its origin illus
trates the proverb, Necessity IA the
mother OF invention A Basque regi-
ment was hard pressed by the enemy
on mountain ridge near Bayonpe.
one OF the soldiers suggested that. as
their ammunition was exhausted. thew
should fix their long knives into the
barrels of their muskets Tho suyges-
tion was acted upon. The first bayonet
charge was made, and the victory Of
the Basques led to the manufacture of
the weapon at Bayonne and its adopt-
ion into the armies of Europe. Not IN
frequently an invention has been suo-
gested by some trivial event, which
would have passed unnotieed had not a
man with eyes and brains seen it,
Argand. poor Swiss, invented a
lamp with wick fitted into hollow
cylinder, up which a current of air
was allowed to pass, thus giving sup
ply OF oxygen to the interior as well
as to the exterior of the circular flame.
At first Argand used ee.e lamp without
glass chimney. One day he was
busy in his workroom, and sitting he.
fore the burning lamp. His little
brother was amusing himself by plac-
ing bottomless oil flash over different
articles. Suddenly he placed it upon
the flame of lamp, which instantly
shot up the long, circular neck of the
flask with increased brilliancy. 1t did
more; for it flashed into Argand' mind
the idea of the lamp-chimney, by
which his invention was perfected
One day the children of Dutch
spectacle-maker were playing with sew
eral OF their fathers glasses before the
door of his shop. Setting two
OF the largest glasses together,
they peeped through them and
were surprised to see the weather-cock
of'the opposite church brought close to
their eyes. They called their father to
see the strange sight. He looked
through the glasses, and what he saw
suggested to him the possibility of con-
structing curious toy. G;llileo, hear
ing of the toy which made distant
things appear close at hand, saw at
once what Il valuable help it would be
in studying the heavens. He set to
work and soon made the telescope.
An accident, that is the happening of
something which was not planned, has
often helped to an invention. 1t helped
Senefelder to invent photography. He
was a sort of ck-of-all-trades-a wri.
ter of verses and comedies, an actor, a
fiddler. painter, an Ell graver and a
printer He worked at etching on cop
per, but the eoppersmith refused to let
him have any more plates unless he
paid cash for them. He then tried to
utilize the old plates by rubbing off the
etchings with soft limestone. At last
the copper became useless through
many rubbings. and he tried etching or
the stone, a plan that did not work very
we'll. One day, while he was polishing
off stone which he intended to etch
his mother asked him to write out lis
of the linen which the washerwomar
WAS waiting to carry off Not finding
slip of paper or II drop of ink, he wrote
the list on the stone, with printing ink
| prepared from wax, soap and lamp
black, intending to copy it at his leisure
| A few days after he was about to wipe
I the writing from the stone. Suddenly
he thought he would learn what would
be the effect of writing with the pre-
pared ink on the stone. if it should be
bitten in with aquafortis. He bit away
to about the hundredth part of an inch
charged the lines with the ink, tool
severals impressions of the writing anC
| discovered that he had invented the ar
of lithographing. - Youths Companion